Not a Brilliant Racing Year

Has there been any distinguishing feature of the flat-racing season of 1905 likely to render it memorable in the annals of the Turf? I think not. Pretty Polly has remained to witch us with her amazing brilliance, and Delaunay still ranks as the best horse in training over six furlongs; but even in the case of these two horses the season has been a disappointment. We saw much less of Pretty Polly than we should have done had she not unluckily strained the muscles of her back. From June 1, when she gained her memorable victory over Zinfandel and Caius, in record time, in the Coronation Cup at Epsom, until October 17, when she came out at Newmarket to show her superiority over Hackler's Pride, the happily-styled Queen of the Turf was absent from the scene of her triumphs. Thanks to Pretty Polly going amiss, Lord Howard de Walden was able to win perhaps the most coveted of all racing trophies, the Ascot Gold Cup, with Zinfandel, who, good horse that he always was, could never have beaten Major Loder's mare at even weights. For Delaunay the season was even shorter than for Pretty Polly, for he was a victim of the coughing epidemic which

has caused so much trouble this year, and he was not seen on the racecourse after July 6.

Moderate Three-year-olds

So far as we can judge, the three-yearolds of 1905 have been distinctly below average excellence. Classic form is represented by Vedas, Cicero, Cherry Lass, and Challacombe. Not one of the four can be termed a great racehorse, and probably Cherry Lass is the best of them, for her form in the St. Leger seemed too bad to be true. Unfortunately, we shall not see any more of Cherry Lass, as Mr. Hall Walker is sending her to the paddocks. Vedas was unlucky in meeting with an accident soon after his victory in the Two Thousand Guineas, and while I think his latest exhibitions can be safely ignored on the grounds of lack of condition, I am doubtful whether he will ever prove himself as good as the average Two Thousand winner. Cicero I regard as just a good-class three-year-old, and nothing more. I feel convinced that he would not have Won the Derby had not Jardy been still under the ban.ful influence of his recent illness. Moreover, Val d'Or defeated Lord Rosebery's colt fairly and squarely in the

Eclipse Stakes, and proved the Derby winner to be by no means a wonder. Challacombe won the St. Leger for Mr. Washington Singer by his sterling staying qualities, but he is as far removed from what is generally accepted as a "great" horse as Vedas is.

And Indifferent Two-year-olds

If the crack three-year-olds of the past season cannot be deemed a particularly good lot, what can be said of the juveniles, who have run in-andout in the most puzzling fashion? By no stretch of imagination can we wax enthusiastic over these two-yearolds, and the general opinion is that they do not attain to the average

well-thought-of youngsters as Admirable Crichton, Colonia, and Black Arrow, but Lally had no engagement after September 9. so that while the other presumed cracks were going down in all directions his reputation remained unsullied simply because he was not racing. It is quite possible, of course, that even if Lally had been seen in public after the date mentioned he would only have increased his fame by fresh victories. On the other hand, he might have shared in the general débâcle. We must give him the benefit of the doubt, and, taking his efforts for the season as a whole, he comes out clearly as the best youngster

of the year.

Owner of St. Denis and Bachelor's Button. Mr. Joel (on the right) is seen discussing the prospects of a race with that sound authority on the Turf, Mr. John Corlett

quality. Fifty years ago we should have been confronted with long quotation lists on the ensuing Derby at this time of the year. But that day has gone, and is never likely to return. People do care, in the twentieth century,

not

to wager upon a horse for a race six or twelve months hence, and the amount of ante-post betting on the Derby and other big races is becoming smaller every Nevertheless, spasmodic attempts certain to be made during the next few weeks to open a winter book

year.

are

upon the Derby of 1906, and in

case

that

Mr. W. B. Purefoy's colt Lally

Black Arrow's Vagaries

There was no more interesting feature of the past season than the extraordinary running of Black Arrow. Early May, Mr. Hall Walker's colt came to Newmarket with a reputation so high that, although this was his first appearance on a racecourse, he started a raging favourite against seventeen opponents for the Newmarket Plate. At the starting-gate Black Arrow behaved like an old hand; he jumped away the best of anything, soon established a long lead, and finally won in absurdly easy fashion. I do not remember any two-year-old

last two months of the past

season

that age. But the end of the season was as disappointing for the one as for the other. Colonia had won all her five races right off the reel before her owner decided to start her at Newmarket for a second time in two days. It was a fatal policy. The filly could not raise a gallop against Mr. W. R. Wyndham's Athi and Lord Howard de Walden's His Eminence, and was comfortably beaten. She was started a fortnight later for the Criterion Stakes, but this time was defeated with equal ease by Lord Howard de Walden's Certosa, so that it is now impossible to consider her as a better filly than Sir Edgar Vincent's Ulalume, Sir Daniel Cooper's Flair, or Mr. J. B. Joel's Waterflower. Possibly as good as any of these is Mr. R. Croker's Vain Glory, but as she has run in Ireland for the most part it is impossible to gauge her merits with any exactitude. My personal opinion is that Flair is the best of the two-year-old fillies. Her victory over her stable companion, Admirable Crichton, in the historic Middle Park Plate, was most impressive, and she showed that this per

gate, and was left behind when the webbing was eventually raised. Robinson, his trainer, at once set to work in an endeavour to cure his waywardness, and we all thought that his methods had been successful when the colt easily won his next race, the Champion Stakes at Derby. But in the same week he again showed villainous temper at Kempton Park, where he was beaten by Lally and Succory. Subsequently he went down badly at Doncaster and Newmarket, and the colt whom we believed was to make turf history became a hopelessly shattered idol. Possibly a long rest will do him good, but I am afraid his bad temper is inherited from his mother's side, and will never leave him.

Other Interesting Youngsters

At one period of the season, Mr. W. Hall Walker had good reason to imagine that in Black Arrow he possessed the best two-year-old colt, and in Colonia the best filly of

W. Higgs

formance was no mere flash-in-the-pan by carrying off the Free Handicap under top-weight.

Successful Owners

of the Year

Mr. W. Hall Walker has the satisfaction of heading the list of winning owners for the season. At one time Cherry Lass and the young Count Schombergs seemed likely to carry all before them, but the second half of

He has made a rapid advance during the past two seasons, and is

now third on the list